Three reasons to smile this week…..

It’s been a looooong week. Feels like a month! I’ve been so busy at work that I’ve been getting home late and sleepy most days. And then being all run down lead to another cold! Very unfair if you ask me.

There have been some highlights though….

Easy as ett, två, tre…. (1, 2, 3…)

High on the list is getting some awesome fabric from Ikea courtesy of my little bro (aka little fro due to his awesomely big hair).

Leeds wasn’t stocking it but WAHEY Manchester was!!

And I love how bargainous the cotton is. Very good prices for quirky prints and hard-wearing.

Not sure what to make with it. I’m going to hold onto it until the perfect project comes along. I saw on one blog a girl planned to use her metre of this fabric to line a Minora jacket.

“I thought she was the most gorgeous creature I ever met. . . . She was so entirely unaffected, completely without vanity.”

Secondly, I’ve just finished reading High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly. I was watching the Monaco Grand-Prix with Jimi and realised I’d love to learn more about Grace Kelly’s life. I have a lot of old Hollywood movie star biographies on my shelves so picked this one up off eBay for a surprising £1.25.

I read it in only FOUR days! Gosh it was good. She was so lovely and had amazing patience and decorum. She always tried to bite her tongue and not let anger or frustration take over.

Her life wasn’t the fairy tale everyone imagined it was and she struggled having to give up acting and move so far away when she became a princess.

Spato is a little bit too eager to flaunt how Grace loved him and wanted him to tell her story. But I can sort of believe him as he treats her with lots of respect even when handling the more unseemly parts of her life. He’s reverent of her memory but still tells what seems to be the truth.

CoLette not CoLLette silly.

Also making me happy this week is finally getting The Colette Sewing Handbook.

(I always have to fight the urge to put two Ls in Colette!)

I know I’m like the last person to buy this book. I feel like I’ll be in a better position now as I can look at everyone’s blogs for help on the patterns and sizing.

I’m super eager to try the scallops though I doubt my skirt will look like the one in the book.

Reading the part about patience and inner calm in sewing struck a chord with me. I’m always desperate to finish and rush things.

I’m going to try taking things slower, having a plan and hopefully ending up with finished garments I love and will last.

That’s all for now. I need sleep and I’ve spent the past few hours finishing a muslin for a new dress and pinning and cutting the real fabric. I’m seeing stars!! No, really, it’s the green star print fabric I bought ho ho ho.